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Pete Thamel expects teams will use Brendan Sorsby situation as 'cautionary tale for all of college sports'

Byington mugby: Alex Byington04/28/26_AlexByington

On Monday, Texas Tech announced star transfer quarterback Brendan Sorsby has taken an “immediate indefinite leave of absence” from the team to enter a residential treatment program for a gambling addiction. On3’s Pete Nakos later confirmed the decision stems from an ongoing NCAA investigation into thousands of bets placed by Sorsby on gambling apps since 2022.

While it’s unclear what will ultimately come of the NCAA investigation, reports that Sorsby allegedly bet on Indiana games when he was a true freshman with the Hoosiers in 2022 certainly put his playing future in doubt, with a potential permanent loss of collegiate eligibility on the table. Given the potential widespread implications at stake, ESPN insider Pete Thamel expects the rest of college athletics to use the Sorsby situation as a teaching lesson regarding the hazards of sports gambling while in school.

“Brendan Sorsby, right now, looms as a cautionary tale for all of college sports,” Thamel said Tuesday afternoon on The Pat McAfee Show.

Thamel also revealed multiple college football coaches blew up his phone well into the evening Monday night seeking inside information into the Sorsby investigation. As Thamel sees it, he expects those coaches to hammer home all the harms that could come from college players betting on sports.

“As the story broke yesterday afternoon and as the day went on, I got a ton of calls from college football coaches wanting to know exactly what happened, why it happened, (but) they weren’t looking for the tea,” Thamel said Tuesday. “What they wanted to do was scare the pants off their team in team meetings today. I guarantee you every team in college football that met today, the first slide that came down on the projector was a picture of Brendan Sorsby and all the assorted headlines from all the different media outlets, and clips of what happened.”

NCAA rules dictate that student-athletes who place bets on games involving their teams face a potential permanent loss of collegiate eligibility, which would seemingly include Sorsby. Former Iowa State QB Hunter Dekkers was ruled permanently ineligible in 2023 for alleged bets involving the Cyclones. And while Texas Tech could certainly fight any potential NCAA discipline, Sorsby’s decision to seek treatment for a gambling addiction could be viewed as an admission of guilt.

“If the integrity of the game is under question, that is a giant threat to these billion-dollar industries,” Thamel said before pointing out all the ways the NCAA and schools are able to monitor sports betting. “Everyone’s phone in major college football, that I know of, depending on what service you use, is subject to an app where they can track what you download and what you do, with pings going back to that.

“So clearly Brendan Sorsby had a way around that. … One of the lessons here is those work arounds don’t work. You will eventually get caught. There’s just too much information that is available right now.